Page 130 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

foliage; they hold the coconut and join the upper can be removed by lifting the topaz; this allowed prehistoric times onwards for their shiny enameled
rim. The band of Lombardic Ds linked back to the sharks' teeth to be dipped in wine or food to surfaces, often stained by different minerals,
back may refer to Robert Dalton, who was admit- test for poison, for according to legend the teeth which gave them a variety of hues: milk white,
ted to New College in 1472 and left in 1485; if so would sweat and change color upon contact with yellowish-brown, bluish-gray, and green. In the
he was presumably the donor of the cup. toxins. The piece is first recorded in 1526, among Middle Ages they were known as glossopetrae
Coconuts (from the tree cocos nucifera L.) are the possessions of the deceased Emperor Maxi- (tongue-stones) or as serpents' tongues. The
found in most tropical areas. During the Middle milian i, as a gilt table ornament with "serpents' Swiss zoologist Conrad Gesner, in 1558, was the
Ages, when they were known as Indian nuts (noix tongues" mounted as a tree ("ain vergulte first to notice their resemblance to sharks' teeth
d'Indes), they were imported from Islamic coun- credenz mit viel natterzungen in gestalt wie (Rudwick 1976, 30-31).
tries, but the opening of the Indian Ocean to Por- ain paumb"). The identification with serpents' tongues could
tuguese trade and the discovery of the Americas The triangular teeth come from chondrichthyes be explained by a simple process of visual associa-
gave Europeans direct access to the areas where (Lamna, Odontaspis, etc.), which are marine fish tion, but there is probably also a basis in biblical
they grow. Diirer's diary of his trip to the Nether- with cartilaginous skeletons including sharks, lore. Medieval sharks' teeth came mainly from
lands in 1520-1521 attests to the ready availability rays, and skates; they were distinguished from Malta, the place where Saint Paul was bitten on
of coconuts, which he eagerly purchased. One of
the earliest mounted coconut vessels still extant is
a reliquary made circa 1250, now in the Domkam-
merin Miinster, which also contains a Fatimid
rock crystal lion on its cover. Others are docu-
mented in medieval inventories; for example,
thirty such vessels are recorded between 1295 and
1371 in the papal treasury in Avignon. Coconuts
were praised for their curative values; Marco
Polo mentioned coconut milk as a panacea, while
others, like the Islamic traveler Ibn Battuta,
described the coconut as an aphrodisiac and
as a medicine for various ailments, including
"phlegm" (for the cultural history of the coconut,
see Fritz 1983, 8-28). J.M.M.

12
Nuremberg craftsman
"SERPENT'S TONGUE"
TABLE ORNAMENT (Natterzungenbaum)

c. 1450
silver gilt, with fossil sharks' teeth and large topaz
5
height 27 (io /s)
references: Pogatscher 1898; Kris 1932, 4, no. 7, pi.
6; Vienna 1964, 32, no. 80, pi. 43; Tescione 1965,
no 2 2
224-225; Kohlhaussen 1968,162—163, - 5 ' /*&•
276; Oakley 1975, 15-21; Zammit-Maempel 1975;
Rudwick 1976, 30-31; Hannsmann and Kriss-
Rettenbeck 1977, figs. 252-257; Lightbown 1978,
29-30; Oakley 1985, 63-65; Schiedlausky 1989,
2 fig. 4
9-3o f
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Sammlung fur
Plastik und Kunstgewerbe

Natterzungenbaume (in French espreuves or
languiers) still summon up a vivid image of the
luxury of table decorations in the late Middle
Ages. This piece has fossilized sharks' teeth —
then called "serpents' tongues" — mounted as a
bouquet. The four-lobed foot —a type that is also
found on Gothic chalices and monstrances — is
surmounted by a knob of foliage from which the
leaves and "flowers' 7 spring. Above these a large
topaz is mounted. Part of the crowning bouquet

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 129